Nosy Friends
by the.omnipresent.quaffle
Summary: Sirius and Remus think they are being incredibly secretive about their relationship. As it turns out, all it takes to change that are some nosy friends and a chance encounter in the common room. RLSB and JPLE, contains slash and mild swearing.


Sighing, Lily ran a pale hand through her dark red hair, leaving it lying tousled over one shoulder. Her bright green eyes flitted to the grandfather clock in the corner of the room; she could barely make out the hands in the shadows. Darkness had long fallen and she was the only one left in the common room, even the once-roaring fire was now burning low in the grate and she knew it was time to retire to bed.

Scanning her essay one last time, she folded the parchment carefully and tucked it in the satchel at her feet. Yawning, she stretched before curling up on the squashy armchair. The room was bathed in a gentle, golden glow from the dying embers, and scattered around Lily lay the debris of the day: Upturned ink bottles, broken quills and scrunched up parchment covered every surface, not yet tidied by the house elves. The air was laced with the comforting scent of old books and sugar, and the girl curled up in front of the fire could not remember a time she felt more at ease.

Somewhere in the grounds, an owl hooted softly, and further away, another replied. Lily felt her eyelids droop, and allowed herself to succumb to the inevitable slumber.

In the corner, the clock began to chime one. Still the girl slept on, oblivious to the muffled footsteps echoing down the staircase behind her.

Eventually, a figure appeared at the foot of the stairs, illuminated by the flickering light of the candle he carried. The dancing light of the flame threw his features into sharp relief, revealing a strong, stubble-dusted jawline and high cheekbones. The mysterious figure wore only plaid pajama trousers, slung low on his hips, and a pair of rectangular spectacles, perched lopsided on his long nose, glinting in the candlelight.

As he moved forwards into the relative light of the room, the boy seemed to realise he was not alone, as his hazel eyes found the sleeping form of the girl sprawled over an ancient looking armchair. Smiling, he lifted a heavy, woolen throw from a nearby sofa, and slowly draped it over the still-slumbering girl.

He watched her fondly for what could have been a few seconds, or an eternity, taking in the sight before him. It occurred to him, more than ever before, just how beautiful she was. He knew it was creepy to watch her sleep, but he couldn't tear his eyes away. She seemed so fragile, yet so strong. Like glass - he thought - she was tough, but he was always afraid to shatter her, wanted to protect her, even though he knew she could take whatever he threw at her. Reaching forward, he gently brushed aside a stray lock of auburn hair from her pale forehead.

Suddenly, she cracked open one eye.

"Shit!" He yelped, "Merlin, Lils, way to give a man a heart attack."

"Stop being so melodramatic, Potter. If anyone should be scared here, it should be me. You were watching me sleep. Creepy, even for you." Her face remained deadpan, but he knew from the way she cocked her head that she wasn't serious.

"No, really, why were you watching me sleep?" She yawned.

Only now, did it seem to occur to James that he might have to explain the point behind this late night excursion.

"Well, it appears that I sent two members of my acquaintance out to the kitchens quite a considerable time ago, and they don't seem to have returned, so I reasoned if I was awake I might as well be down here with you as upstairs with snoring-Wormy for company." He gestured to the square of folded parchment in his pocket.

This seemed to mollify Lily, although she did not seem to realise that her question had not been answered.

"Damn, it's cold without that fire. I'll scoot up, come and sit next to me." She shimmied over, allowing James to squeeze beside her on the armchair. If they hadn't been too close for simple, platonic excuses before, they now definitely were, his arm was resting on her shoulders, and she was half on his lap, but neither seemed to notice. Since they had been assigned heads of school in September, they had gained a lot of respect for each other, and there was a certain fondness between the two.

"So, about these 'disappearing' acquaintances of yours, they've done it again, have they?" She grinned, eyes gleaming ominously.

"It seems so. They think they're so bloody subtle. Like we haven't noticed them sneaking off for little broom cupboard-sessions when they think we're not paying attention." At his words, Lily snorted.

"Ah, speak of the devil." The portrait hole swung open, revealing two dishevelled looking boys.

"That's me." Quipped the shorter of the two, casually attempting to tuck in his wrongly-buttoned shirt and straighten his scarlet tie.

"What held you two up?" Smirked James, he knew they wouldn't tell the truth but he enjoyed making them uncomfortable, especially under current circumstances.

The two newcomers exchanged meaningful looks, before the taller replied hastily, "Peeves. You know what he's like." As he spoke, Remus desperately tried to correct his belt, which previously had been half undone, and flatten his turned-up collar.

At this, James and Lily swapped raised eyebrows, unseen by Sirius and Remus in the near darkness.

"James," Lily hissed while the others where preoccupied rearranging their appearances. "James, we really need to talk to them about this." At her words, he seemed to pale considerably, but she nudged his arm encouragingly, and after a few moments, he cleared his throat.

"Sirius, Remus? Guys, Lily would..." Here she glared at him. "We, sorry Lils, need to talk to you about some... Stuff."

"Oh yeah? Sure." Remus settled himself on the edge of the oak coffee table in front of his friends, and beckoned Sirius over to sit next to him.

"Well, it's just..." James trailed off, shooting desperate looks at Lily, willing her to intervene. They might be like brothers to him, but God knew she was so much better at this stuff than him.

"James and I would like to congratulate you on your blatantly obvious relationship." Lily stated frankly.

The reaction to this was almost comic in her mind: Remus paled, a feat in itself considering his permanent luminescence, and chuckled weakly. Sirius shuffled away from Remus, so their legs were no longer touching and flushed a deep, beet red, and James simply stared at her in what could either have been admiration or mortification.

"Lils, you could have broken it gently, hun." He muttered in her ear, never taking his eyes off her.

"I am not, and will never be your 'hun', Potter. Now shut up and let me deal with your blatantly-gay friends."

About now, Remus seemed to regain the ability to speak.

"Lily, Prongs, what the hell do you mean by 'blatantly-gay'?"

"What I mean is quite clear, Remus Lupin, and I think you are purposefully misunderstanding me."

Here, James intervened. "You keep sneaking off together at all hours of the day and night, coming back looking like you've been dragged through the Forbidden Forest backwards, for Merlin's sake you share Padfoot's bed half the time, and, frankly, I don't see how you didn't expect us to notice sooner."

"Hang on, we do _not_ look like -"

Sirius tapped Remus lightly on the shoulder. "Mate, look at me."

At this point, all eyes turned to Sirius. His too-long-to-be-short hair was sticking up like he'd just received an electric shock, his grey eyes were bright and dark, his full lips red and swollen. His shirt was still wrongly buttoned, his tie was undone, and his shoes were on the wrong feet. In other words, it was entirely clear that Peeves was not responsible for this mess.

"When you've all finished checking me out - not that I can blame you - I think you just accused me and Moony of being gay?"

"We did not accuse you! We just..."

"Face it, Lils, we accused them."

"Don't you call me _'Lils'_ like you didn't totally just dump that one on me!"

"Wait, what? You made me bring it up!"

"Well, I didn't see you complaining."

"Merlin, everything's always my bloody fault, isn't it, Evans?!"

Remus turned to Sirius, a single eyebrow raised, a smirk playing about his swollen lips. He knew they had succeeded in drawing attention away from themselves, leaving them to their own devices while the other two fought. Perfect, and if Lily and Prongs had guessed about them anyway, it meant they were free to resume previous activities...

"Yes, Potter, it is your 'bloody fault'! Maybe if you weren't so arragont, acting like you're Merlin's gift to witches-"

"Oy, discrimination!" Panted Sirius, who had momentarily torn himself away from Remus.

"Ok, ok. Merlin's gift to witches and your now _incredibly_ -blatantly-gay friends..."

Now, she turned to gesture to the sofa where the newly-outed couple lay entangled in a knot of limbs and sandy hair. It seemed Remus's ponytail had come lose at some point in the proceedings.

Both her and James tuned to watch them, mingled looks of interest and mild disgust mirrored on both of their faces.

"God, and we thought they were being obvious about it before." She breathed.

"What have we done, Lils?" James replied.

"Reckon we should leave them to it." She tore her eyes away from the entangled boys in front of her, and waving goodnight to James, picked up her long-forgotten satchel and headed up to bed.

James followed her example, taking the other staircase up to his dorm. Well, that had been a weird night.

In the corner, the ancient oaken clock tolled five. All was silent, as the morning sun pierced the sleepy common room, cutting a shaft of light from between the velvet drapes, illuminating the tiny dust particles in the air. On the worn, old sofa near the fire, two boys lay entangled, snoring softly as the first light of the day filtered into the room. They had thought they were being so discreet, that nobody would notice their late-night rendezvous, but they hadn't counted on one thing: The power of overly nosey and tactless friends, that wrecker of all but the best hidden secrets.


End file.
